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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

In December 2008, Archpriest John Shaw of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad was elevated to the grace of the Episcopate. Receiving the new title Bishop Jerome of Manhattan, His Grace will assist the Western Rite communities of the Russian Orthodox Church (amid countless other duties).

Here is a picture of Vladika Jerome taken just after his consecration:

Here is a picture of Vladika taken just before his consecration:

When yet a junior priest of the Russian Church in the 1970s, then-Fr. John Shaw became father of the Sarum rite movement which flourished more particularly in Old Calendarist and Russian Church-Abroad circles and became the most widely-published of any Western rite liturgy in modern times. Fr. John celebrated many Liturgies in the Sarum use of the Roman rite, and guided the development of the rite as it came to be published by the St. Hilarion and St. Gregory Presses. This was not an official collaboration, but was seminal in helping determine, for example, just what parts of Western observance from mediaeval England were inappropriate for Orthodox worship today. Bishop Jerome works pastorally with those who use a variety of forms of Western rite, in a judicious and Christian spirit.

Friday, March 6, 2009

"On Sunday, 1 March/16 February 2009, notice was received from Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, that the monastery and mission of Christminster and Our Lady of Glastonbury Orthodox Church, in Hamilton, Ontario, would henceforth be directly under the archpastoral oversight of the Metropolitan himself, assisted by his Vicar Bishop Jerome, Bishop of Manhattan. Bishop Gabriel, the ruling Bishop of Canada, had requested this change in light of his own lack of familiarity with the Orthodox western rite and its usages.

"Bishop Jerome, the former Father John Shaw, is a long-time friend of Christminster and a scholar deeply learned in western liturgics.

"We are grateful to each of these hierarchs for their pastoral concern for the well-being of our mission and work.

Source: http://www.westernorthodox.ca/

Note from Fr. Aidan: Many Years to Abbot James and to all the faithful of Our Lady of Glastonbury!

We have, of course, received the tidings that Metropolitan Kirill has been elected and enthroned as the new Patriarch of Moscow and is now the head of the largest Orthodox Church.

His Holiness Kirill, wearing the kukulion and green mandiya

In the Western rite as it was preserved in England up to the Reformation, we find the following collect for the enthronement of the Primate.

"Almighty, everlasting God, Who although Thou art Most High didst as one humble deign to come down to us: We humbly pray that this Thy servant may be promoted by the dignity of his humility upon the summit of the priesthood conferred by Thee upon him. And just as in the ministry of his governing he approacheth to ascend this pontifical throne, so also mayest Thou approach the throne of his bosom by the visitation of Thine indwelling, so that he--by the bestowal of Thy grace--may become the royal chair of Thine enthronement. Through Thee, Jesus Christ, Who with the Father co-eternal to Thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, God through all the ages of ages. Amen." (Latin translation, Fr. Aidan)